This power is owing to a complicated structure of their stomach, which is divided into several compartments, and which have been considered, though with some exaggeration, as so many distinct stomachs. The first and largest of these divisions is the paunch, which occupies a large portion of the abdomen. The food is here accumulated after being roughly crushed by the first chewing. After the paunch comes the bonnet or cap stomach. In this cap the food is gradually moulded into small pellets, which ascend again into the mouth, by means of a natural movement, and not a convulsive or irregular one as in other animals; these pellets then undergo a thorough chewing and mixing with the saliva. Such is “chewing the cud.”
When the food, thus transformed into a soft and nearly fluid paste descends again into the stomach, it goes straight into a third intestine and from this it at length passes into the digesting stomach or rennet-bag.
The feet of all these animals terminate in two toes which are joined together in a bone called the shank. Sometimes also there exists at the back of the foot two small spurs or toes. In all these animals except the Camels and Llamas—the hoofs, which entirely cover the last joint of the two toes on each foot, act side by side on a smooth surface, and resemble one single but cloven hoof. Thus the origin of the word cloven-hoofed.
The Ruminants are divided in various ways by different Naturalists. Some are satisfied with the division simply into Horned and Hornless Ruminants. But the best classification is into the two large families of the Camels and Common Ruminants. The Camel family includes the Camels and Dromedaries—the beasts of burden in dessert lands, and the Llama, etc., the beast of burden among the mountains.
The Common Ruminants are divided into three tribes—those with hairy and permanent horns, those with hollow-horns, and those that shed their horns.
THE CAMEL FAMILY.
CAMEL.
Most of the modern Naturalists admit two distinct species of the Camel genus; the Camel proper, which has two humps on its back, and the Dromedary, which has only one.
The individuals of the Camel genus have a small and strongly-arched head. Their ears are slightly developed, still their sense of hearing is excellent. Their eyes, which have oblong and horizontal pupils, are projecting and gentle in expression, and are protected by a double eyelid. Their power of sight is very great. Their nostrils are situated at some distance from the extremity of the upper lip, and, externally, appear only two simple slits in the skin, which the animal can open or shut at will. Their upper lip is split down the centre, and the two halves are susceptible of various and separate movements. These constitute a very delicate organ of feeling. They are also possessed of an extremely acute sense of smell.